Tourists from Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, stop
by daily and don’t flinch at buying $1,000 bottles, she said.

“I sold 30 cases of 2009 Bordeaux futures in the last two
weeks,” Galvani, a native of Mirandopolis, in Sao Paulo state,
said in an interview at the store. “I sell a lot to Brazil.” A
12-bottle case of 2009 Chateau Margaux Grand Cru Classe Premiere
costs $15,540 for delivery in 2012.

The fastest economic growth in 15 years, a currency that
has doubled against the U.S. dollar since 2003 and higher
disposable income are encouraging Brazilians to purchase luxury
goods in New York. At the Prada store in SoHo, the Italian
retailer has at least three Portuguese-speaking sales
representatives to cater to Brazilian visitors. David Wasserman,
co-owner of Stereo Exchange in Manhattan, said demand from
Brazilians is rising, including the sale of a $100,000 home
theater system this month to a customer from Sao Paulo.

“Brazil has really hit my radar screen,” Wasserman said.

In the country of more than 193 million people, the number
of billionaires has doubled since 2000 to 18 and Brazil now has
more than any nation in Latin America, according to Forbes
magazine. The number of millionaires in Brazil jumped 19 percent
to 126,882 from 2008 to 2009, according to Boston Consulting
Group data. That ranks Brazil as 17th among markets with the
highest number of households having a net worth of $1 million.

Real Rallies

The real rallied 100 percent against the dollar since
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January 2003
and jumped 33 percent in 2009, the best-performing currency in
the world, helped by revenue from exports of commodities such as
coffee and soybeans and demand for the nation’s stocks and
bonds. The currency is down 1.7 percent this year after the
government started a tax on foreigners’ purchases of stocks and
bonds in a bid to curb its gains.

First quarter economic growth of 9 percent, the fastest
since 1995, was driven by consumer spending, as retail sales
climbed 15.7 percent in March from a year earlier, the most
since at least 2001. Gross domestic product will expand 7.2
percent in 2010, the quickest pace in more than two decades,
according to a central bank survey of about 100 economists
published July 19. U.S. GDP is forecast to increase 3.1 percent
this year after declining 2.4 percent last year, according to
data compiled by Bloomberg.

Luxury Trips

Fashion stylist Patricia de Azevedo Camargo Araujo of
Santos, Brazil, traveled to New York at least five times in the
past three years to scout for Chanel, Prada and Louis Vuitton
products. The city’s stores offer a better variety of models and
colors than are available in Brazil, she said.

“We focus on luxury goods with our trips,” said Araujo,
39, who was shopping with her husband and two daughters, ages 14
and 18, at the Prada store on Broadway. “We have better access
outside Brazil.”

A fax and two telephone messages left at Prada Holding
SpA’s main office in New York weren’t returned.

Gross disposable income in Brazil advanced 54.3 percent
from the time Lula, 64, took office through the first half of
2010, the national statistics agency said in an e-mailed
statement July 16.

More than 5.22 million jobs have been created in Brazil
since December 2006, pushing the unemployment rate down to 7.5
percent in May from 8.4 percent. Average monthly wages have
risen 29 percent, excluding inflation, to 821 reais ($463) under
Lula, according to the Labor ministry.

Poverty Ranking

While many are benefitting from the country’s economic
expansion, almost a quarter of Brazilians live below the
national poverty line, according to data from The World Bank in
Washington. Brazil ranks 75th on the United Nations human
development list, which measures poverty and literacy.

Brazil trails Albania, Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina,
Singapore and 69 other countries in human development, according
to data from the United Nations. Brazil’s per capita income is
$8,205, about 17 percent of the U.S. figure of $46,350, data
compiled by The World Bank and the Commerce Department show.

Brazil is benefitting from a boom in commodities in the
decade ending last year and inflation that’s remained under 6
percent since 2005. The country is the largest exporter of
coffee and second-biggest provider of soybeans and is home to
the world’s largest iron-ore producer, Vale SA. Overall,
commodity prices rose 34 percent from 1999 through 2009, and are
down 7.7 percent this year, according to the Reuters/Jefferies
Commodity Price Index.

More Purchasing Power

“Brazil is growing more than developed countries,
increasing the inflow of dollars and boosting purchasing
power,” Luciano Rostagno, chief strategist at Madrid-based
brokerage CM Capital Markets, said in an telephone interview
from Sao Paulo.

The number of Brazilian tourists who traveled to New York
increased 41 percent to 359,000 last year from 2007, making
visitors from Brazil the eighth-largest group arriving in the
city.

Demand is so strong for travel to New York that American
Airlines is adding 11 flights a week between the U.S. and Brazil
beginning Nov. 18, the Fort Worth, Texas-based air carrier said
in a June 24 statement.

“There has been a marked increase” from Brazilian buyers,
said Adams. “Traditional buyers -- New York buyers, American
buyers -- are still the foundation of our business. But to see
in a down economy a three- to four-fold increase from a market
is just fantastic.”

Higher Demand

Wasserman said he began to see more demand from Brazilians
about a year ago and many were interested in high-end brands
such as Bowers & Wilkins and McIntosh. A B&W system starts at
$2,000 and the most expensive can cost several hundred thousand,
he said.

The Brazilian audiophile that spent $100,000 on the home
theater project bought a pair of $15,000 802D2 B&W speakers, a
$15,000 Runco Q750I projector, $8,000 McIntosh MVP881BR Blu Ray
television and $7,500 in Kimber cables and power cords, he said.

“We designed the system for him strictly through e-mail
exchanges,” said Wasserman. “He wired $50,000 to us and he
came to visit us several weeks later and went through a complete
demonstration in the store.”

For Sherry-Lehmann’s Galvani, 36, Brazil has provided a
growing customer base. Her Brazilian clients have at least
doubled since she began at the store in 2007 to about 3,500,
Galvani said.

“It is fashionable to drink wine in Brazil now, and the
real is strong,” she said. “They want certain labels in their
cellars, certain wines to offer to friends.”